The practice of Boxing not only raise the character of those who practice, but consequently, a better civilization.Clint Eastwood

But what is ultimately Boxing? This was the starting point to accept the challenge, to rehabilitate a vacant warehouse in an industrial zone in Lisbon and to create there the central space of the Jorge Pina Boxing Team. This team is an association whose main focus is directed towards the young people from troubled neighborhoods in Lisbon.

Our design not only answer to the need for a place for practicing boxing but it is also the starting point to the birth of a community where, in addition to the physical well-being, it is possible to promote the sharing of knowledge in a multicultural and multidisciplinary environment, training kids in a free, ethical and self-disciplined way. The projected space, like the sport that serves as its premise, stimulates individual courage and collective entrepreneurship through the creation of conditions for holding events, promotion actions and ideas in order to develop and foster the community.

When developing this space we tried to use common materials and affordable. Besides the boxing gym, the space can also be used as a space for cultural events, where you can hold conferences, presentations and concerts, and simultaneous, it provides workplaces with Internet access for the kids. To solve the entire program in a economically way we took advantage of the flexibility and low cost of the prefabricated concrete boxes, which, by the way they are arranged and stacked, provide the necessary support for all the functions, where each box itself houses a different function: bar, changing rooms, waiting rooms, workspaces or training, meeting rooms, or, if desired, space to watch the concerts and events.

With the introduction of these boxes we split physically the training zone from the zone intended for the general public. This separation is also experienced and felt through the floor, a metallic grating on the public area, and a self-leveling orange floor in the training zone. Thus, through the entrance hall you can access the changing rooms of the athletes, the toilet facilities, the bar and an indoor waiting room always overlooking the central motif of the entire space: the boxing ring. Through the stairs is it possible to access the upper floors, where the interior of these "building blocks" can be filled either as training rooms, work spaces (which may even be rented monthly) or as cabins musical shows, boxing events, functioning as a mini-coliseum around the central space that is occupied by the Boxing Ring.Upstairs was created a large multi-functional space that can function as auditorium for events or as a training room, a space that, following the logic of the lower floors, it has the privileged view over the central space.

Our intention is to implement an innovative space that has the valence of bringing young people and residents of Eastern Lisbon able to pursue an Olympic sport, and others that will join this up in a space which is assumed as both cultural, collaborative, modern and functional.